Metro One winds down

Metro One sold off its last operating business on Dec. 31, the company said in a regulatory filing this week, all but closing the book on one of Oregon's most dramatic flameouts.

The Beaverton company had 7,000 employees early this decade at call centers around the country, providing 4-1-1 directory assistance for cell phone companies. When the cellular carriers took their business elsewhere, Metro One launched an ill-considered bid to sign up consumers for subscriptions to a new "teleconcierge" service called Infone.

Metro One spent more than $70 million launching Infone, including a $250,000 ad on the jockey riding Triple Crown hopeful Smarty Jones in the 2004 Belmont Stakes.

Smarty lost, and Infone washed out.

Metro One closed down most of its call centers and tried to reinvent itself in specialized parts of the call center industry. But Jim Hensel, the current CEO, said the recession made those efforts unworkable.

"The change in the tide made it not make any sense to continue," he said.

Metro One is down to three employees, and it will be just Hensel after this month. He said Metro One is trying to work its way out of leases at a Long Island call center and at its headquarters in a Beaverton call center.

But this isn't necessarily the end.

"I hope to have a little bit of money left," Hensel said.

If so, Metro One might yet buy some other companies and try to restart itself down the line.

The company's share price rose 4 cents today, to close at 14 cents a share.

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